Sugarfree Lovers

September 23, 2013

Being full time employee to an organization
which at times need more than 9 hours of my time a day and being someone who
has so many hobbies (which again need some time and attention) is a though thing
to manage. To top it all I got married to a foodie, someone who does not
believe in the quantity of food but is very particular about the quality of
food. My husband loves eating, and he adores it when I make his favourite
dishes. He is critical about food so I just can’t boil anything and serve that
to him, he needs only Good Food. But with my full time job, blog and other
household chaos cooking becomes a tiring job at times for me.

I am not found of cooking but I love
serving good food to my family. So on days when I am late from work or do not
have sufficient time to put together a good meal it makes me feel bad. On such
occasions we mostly order food from outside but as you know for food home
delivery first thing which came to our mind is Pizza. But can we eat pizza 3
times a week, not me J We need more options for food home delivery, right? After a long
day at work I do not feel like getting dressed to go out for a meal, I just
want to eat my food in comfort of my home but I want verity too. And to rescue
all the people like me who have no time to cook/go out/ or pick to go Foodpanda
is here (for some reasons this site always reminds me of the foodie kung fu Panda
J )

Foodpanda is site
which works as a channel between us and our favourite restaurants. Now for all
those who think why do we need this channel, don’t you think opening each restaurant
site one by one to find menu or calling them separately will be more time consuming
then finding information about all of them at one place. By bringing menu and
contact details of various restaurants at one place Foodpanda makes food
ordering very easy for customers. Foodpanda serves in many other countries and
in India currently it is active in 14 cities. This site also offers lots of verity
to end user in terms of cuisines and most of the well know restaurants are
available here. This is not all, it also takes care of our pocket by giving us
good deals on our meals J Which we cannot get otherwise.

Ordering process is quite simple too. On the main page we can select our city and area and it will list down all the restaurants available. We can see their menu and by clicking on the add button next to each item we can create our order and once done finally click on place order. Within some time the restaurant people call and confirm the order too in many cases. And in case you have mood to eat some specific food then just select that cuisine on their main page and you will see all the restaurants which serve that food. It’s quite simple and fun. And for families where one like Chinese and other loves Mughlai, Foodpanda works as saviour by bringing details of both types of restaurant at one place. This site takes orders from 11 am to 11 pm, which means whether it is lunch order in office, late lunch on weekends or dinner Foodpanda is ready to serve us always.

In this day and age where time is the most precious thing, having a site which saves
food ordering time is like a boon. It comes as a saviour even when one is in a
new city, just few clicks and you get your much loved food without getting lost
in new place. With Foodpanda placing food home delivery has become very easy
job for me and I recommend this site to everyone who wants to enjoy their favourite
food without going out J

September 10, 2013

Pictures
take you back to your past but have you ever been taken to memory lane by some
smell? I do, I always associate smells with things, places and people and that
is how smells always become essential part of my memories.

That smell
of rain always reminds me of my childhood rainy days, when we used to play out
in rain, and mom used to give us hot and yummy pakodas to eat J. Similarly the smell of wet cloths
during rainy season reminds me of afternoon naps, which mom used to force us
for whenever it used to rain heavily during afternoons. She will put the half
dried cloths inside one room and switch on the fan and that smell of wet cloths
used to spread in whole house. She will ask us not to go out and to make sure
that we don’t sneak out without telling her, she used to make us sleep with
her. Cosy blankets and some random story from mom and after some time we used
to be in our dream lands.

I also associate a different kind of smell
with my dad. When he used to come back from work, he used to have little bit of
iron kind of smell on him ( he works for a steel company). So that kind of
smell always reminds me of my dad.

Mixed smell of
pickles and paratha reminds me of my lunch box in school. As I used to hate
eating vegetables, mom used to stuff them in paratha and used to give that with
pickle for lunch. And when I used to open that box after few hours during Lunch
break, it used to give a delicious pickley smell. I also associate some of my
relatives with different smells. Like this one aunt of mine was big fan of cobra
perfume, whenever she will pass by one can easily identify her with her perfume
smell. That was a strong smelling perfume, now also whenever I smell anything
similar it always reminds me of my Aunt. Likewise my Nana ji (maternal grandfather)
is using a strong smelling hair oil from ages, he used to use that oil so much
that even his cloths used to smell same. Smelling that oil or anything similar
brings back the fun time I spent with my Nana ji J While talking about smells how can I
forget about mentioning the smell of baby powder. These baby powders smell I
associate with so many kids in my family. My siblings, cousins they all used to
smell same when they where infants and I being the oldest of them all got to
see them all as babies and played with all of them. That smell of baby powder
is so transferable that once you carry the baby you too start smelling the same
J Recently I went to see my sister’s new born baby and his smell reminded me of all
the babies I played with till now :D. I think, I am already missing him, see how strongly
these smells are associated with us and our memories.

I also connect
smells with my mood, a nice citrusy smell reminds me of fresh morning and warm
vanilla smells reminds me of cold days. Fresh fruity fragrances make me feel
young and happy and woody smells make me feel mature. Flowery smells make me
feel more feminine and musky smells makes me feel strong. I guess this
connection of fragrance with mood decides our liking of different perfumes.

Smell can be
good or it can be bad, they can take us back to good memories or to bad memories
but they are integral part of our reminiscences and we can never deny that. I
love smelling good and I like my surrounding to smell great too, it uplifts my
mood. And when the smell is related to my good memories, I just enjoy the smell
and smile for those good old times’ sake J.

September 9, 2013

“The world
is a book and people who do not travel read only one page” I so much agree to
this line. Travelling gives us another view of life; it helps us know ourselves
better. When we travel with people we love, whole experience of travelling goes
to next level, our happiness doubles. If I have to tell about my definition of
perfect holiday, it should be a combination of relaxing and sightseeing both. I
don’t like going out and spending all the time in my luxury hotel only and I
also do not like doing sightseeing on someone else’s pace, it becomes hectic
and less fun that way.

I have
travelled places mostly with friends and my husband. With my parents I have
travelled only when I was very young. As I grew up, due to my studies and other
classes we never got chance to have any good holiday together. When I got to
travel abroad first, one thing which I missed the most was my parents. I wanted
them to see and experience everything that I was doing. From that time itself I
have this desire to take my parents on a holiday abroad. I want it to be a
place which is different than our country (which we have travelled together
many times) yet similar. And after travelling to Singapore, I feel that’s the
answer for me.

I would like
to take my parents to Singapore, which is a great travel destination. Singapore
is the microcosm of Asia. It has something for everyone. I am sure my parents
will admire the kind of discipline about cleanliness people follow there. Wide
roads, flyovers and well planned city, it is so much fun to drive around in
such place. Sentosa island is most famous place among tourists in
Singapore. Famous Merlion Statue is there, and there are many other highlights
like the Underwater World which I am sure will be something my parents
have never seen before. There is this very fun place Dolphin Lagoon, where
they conduct dolphin shows ( the kind of tricks they do will make them clap their
hands in joy :) ) Last
time when I was there I tried taking pictures of same but failed to capture those
fun moment well, now when my mom dad will get to see it in real my joy will be
doubled by seeing them happy. And now with Disneyland and universal studios
also being there, I am sure I would love to see my parents relive their childhood
J

Signapore also has China town, which is good to give one a feel of
being in china, so I would like to take them there as well. And nothing gives
more pleasure then to find your own culture and people in another land, so trip
to little India will be there on my list as well. I would do lots of
shopping with my mom there and will help keep my dad in updating his travelogue
( he has this habit of noting down some details of new places he goes to for
future reference ;) )

All this and so much more is there in my mind but planning trip in real
is not as easy as lying on the rocking chair and day dreaming. It is so much of
work and efforts but who has time to plan for a break ;) yes the irony of our
generation. To rescue us there are these online travel planning and booking
sites available. And if it is from a reliable source then it’s like the cherry
on the cake. Yatra is one such site which I trust for travel panning and
booking. After all with ease of planning the travel the fun and happiness of
the travel is also important. When we pull out some days from our busy schedules
I don’t want to scratch my head about where to go and how to go. I want someone
else to take these headaches of mine and let me have happy time with my family.
Long talks, lots of food and laughter, some nice locations and lots of shopping
this is what makes a trip memorable and make us happy travellers. So when I
will travel to Singapore with my parents I want all of this, so that we bring
back lots of lovely memories as Happy Travellers.